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Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Experts say on average, a woman dies every two hours from complications during childbirth. The problem has become more accute since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, with access to healthcare for Afghan women becoming increasingly difficult. FRANCE 24's team reports from on the ground.
Afghanistan's Taliban government expressed concern on Monday over reported US plans to deport more than 150 Afghans from the US to Pakistan for an eventual return home, with advocacy groups warning the removal could endanger their lives.
The US has defunded one of the last universities giving Afghan women the chance to receive an education after the Taliban takeover in 2021. DW spoke with a student who says she's lost hope of ever earning a degree.
As Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan comes under strain, India is rebuilding ties with the Taliban in Kabul. Can New Delhi turn this diplomatic opening into lasting strategic gains?
Europe's increasingly pragmatic engagement with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers is exposing a fundamental contradiction between diplomatic non-recognition and political necessity. In an investigation for The New York Times, Pakistan and Afghanistan bureau chief Elian Peltier reveals how European governments are quietly expanding negotiations with the Taliban over migrant deportations, diplomatic representation and economic assistance. “Even though on paper European governments do not recognise the Taliban administration, in practice they meet much more frequently than most of us know,” Peltier ex
Russia has close ties with the Taliban and is courting Islamabad, but analysts say its leverage remains uncertain.
Pakistan says it intercepted 23 suicide drones launched from Afghanistan into Pakistani airspace in September alone. Since the conflict began in February 2026, the Taliban have increasingly used drones to attack Pakistan, raising concerns in Islamabad.
In recent months, the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have arrested or detained dozens of women for alleged violations of dress codes and for appearing in public without a male guardian.
The court gave more details on the warrants for four Taliban leaders accused of the crime against humanity of gender persecution of women, girls and the LGBTQ+ community. The Islamist group rejected the warrants.
The Ministers of Education and Higher Education in Afghanistan are covered by arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday. Both men are accused of gender-related persecution, a crime against humanity. On Monday, the UN Human Rights Council urged the Taliban to repeal practices restricting the fundamental freedoms of women and girls.
The International Criminal Court on Monday unsealed warrants for Afghan Education Minister Habibullah Agha, and Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem, accusing two senior Taliban officials of crimes against humanity for denying Afghanistan's women and girls over 12 their rights to an education.
For years, Pakistan supported the Taliban in Afghanistan. But now Pakistan is bombing its neighbor. How the former allies became adversaries and why negotiations keep failing.
This week, we receive the author and documentary artist Sarah El Younsi who, along with the cartoonist Léa Taillefert, signs the comic book "The Symphony of Kabul. The female orchestra is forbidden" (Editions Steinkis). Five years after the Taliban captured Kabul, the album tells the story of Afghanistan's only female orchestra founded in 2016. It traces the journey and incredible determination of the young musicians who are part of it and who now live in exile.
Afghan taxi drivers are playing music in their cars despite it being banned by the Taliban.
In this edition, we focus on Afghanistan, which recently marked the fifth anniversary of the Taliban's return to power. Since then, the exclusion of women and girls has become normalised, with the government systematically dismantling the rights of more than half the country's population.
Pakistan's security forces report ongoing cross-border fire in latest fighting with Afghanistan.
Pakistan says it struck 10 targets, adding the strikes were "strictly limited to identified military objectives".
Pakistan stated on Thursday that it had conducted air strikes and drone attacks on ten sites in Afghanistan, which Islamabad said were used to store and launch drones towards its territory. The Taliban in power in Kabul announced a record of four civilians killed.
Pakistan launched air strikes Thursday on 10 sites in Afghanistan in what Islamabad said was a retaliation for a drone attack by Afghanistan's Taliban forces on a border post. A Taliban government spokesman denied the allegation and said Pakistan's latest strikes killed four civilians in Afghanistan's southern and eastern provinces.
Afghan cyclist Fariba Hashimi wins silver in the women's road race at the Asian Games, having fled oppression in her home country to pursue a sporting dream.
